Social Services (SC)
Program Overview:
Be the Missing Link in Your Community!
Assist a homeless veteran secure housing and food assistance. Coordinate a weekly meal for your community’s poor. Help an immigrant family enroll in English courses. Partner with a person leaving prison as they re-enter society and rebuild their life. Social services are the missing link in communities, combating poverty, hunger and marginalization to give underprivileged people an improved quality of life.
Social service assistants play an important role of connecting people in need with available services. They partner with social workers and other professionals to provide resources and services that matter. Social services create healthy pathways for those in the midst of poverty, and opportunity amid difficulty.
Want to work in social services? LASC’s Social Services Skill Certificate is your first step! Successfully completing this program will fulfill the academic requirements you’ll need for entry-level, engaging occupations in local social assistant programs. Start your future today!
Careers in Social Services
Social service is a field that offers roles in and out of offices, classrooms, courtrooms, and more! With a career in social services, you’ll have endless opportunities to make a difference in people’s everyday lives.
Here are some occupations and their salaries you could have with a Social Services Skill Certificate:
Career information below taken from bls.gov December 2019. Go to bls.gov for most current career information.
Provide client services in a variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, and social work.
Data for Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim
| Typical Education Level: | Salary: | Hourly Median Wage: |
|---|---|---|
| Associate Degree | $42,160/year | $20.27/hour |
| Work Experience in a Related Occupation: | Job Outlook 2018-2028: | Number of Jobs 2018: |
| None needed | 7% increase (as fast as average) |
19,070 |
Attend to the basic needs of children, such as dressing, bathing, feeding, and overseeing play.
Data for Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim
| Typical Education Level: | Salary: | Hourly Median Wage: |
|---|---|---|
| High school diploma or equivalent | $27,880/year | $13.14/hour |
| Work Experience in a Related Occupation: | Job Outlook 2018-2028: | Number of Jobs 2018: |
| Short-term on-the-job training | 5% increase (as fast as average) |
22,250 |
Assist in rehabilitation of law offenders in custody or on probation or parole.
Data for Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim
| Typical Education Level: | Salary: | Hourly Median Wage: |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s Degree | $85,470/year | $41.09/hour |
| Work Experience in a Related Occupation: | Job Outlook 2018-2028: | Number of Jobs 2018: |
| None needed | 9% increase (faster than average) |
5,210 |
Help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives.
National data
| Typical Education Level: | Salary: | Hourly Median Wage: |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s Degree | $49,470/year | $23.79/hour |
| Work Experience in a Related Occupation: | Job Outlook 2018-2028: | Number of Jobs 2018: |
| None needed | 11% increase (faster than average) |
707,400 |
Protect lives and property. Detectives and criminal investigators gather facts and collect evidence of possible crimes.
Data for Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim
| Typical Education Level: | Salary: | Hourly Median Wage: |
|---|---|---|
| High School Diploma or equivalent | $104,230/year | $50.11/hour |
| Work Experience in a Related Occupation: | Job Outlook 2018-2028: | Number of Jobs 2018: |
| Moderate-term on-the-job training | 5% increase (as fast as average) |
30,190 |
What You’ll Learn at LASC in Social Services
You can get a Skill Certificate (SC) through LASC’s Social Services program where you will develop empathy and compassion, expand your imagination, and become an advocate in your community:
- Discover where major problems are in various social assistance programs so you can begin to develop possible solutions to overcoming them.
- Imagine a community-based, collaborative approach to solving a specific social problem in your community. Create a plan that can feasibly come to life!
- Understand the important role that social work plays in the lives of people, and in society.
- LASC provides internships so you can build your career connections and create community ties for after you graduate.
- Want to get a bachelor’s degree? Visit your academic counselor or the Transfer Center to find out how you can benefit from going to a four-year college or university to gain even more academic knowledge and hands-on techniques to build upon what you will learn at LASC and allow you to become a social worker even faster.
Degrees & Courses You Will Take
Review LASC’s Social Services Skill Certificate and our suggested course of study for these programs. Go to LASC’s current Course Catalog for specific course information:
Major Code: 2208.00
Total Units Required: 15
Upon successful completion of this program, you will be able to:
- Analyze social problems from major theoretical approaches in historical and socio-cultural context.
- Identify a community-based approach to solving a social problem.
- Define the nature and scope of social work, including the nature of the relationship between social worker and client.
| Required Courses: | Units |
|---|---|
| SOC 2 American Social Problems | 3 |
| SOC 7 Juvenile Delinquency | 3 |
| SOC 12 Marriage and Family Life | 3 |
| SOC 19 Introduction to the Social Services | 3 |
| SOC 20 Directed Practice in Social Welfare | 3 |
| TOTAL UNITS | 15 |
Get Ready Before You Start
Interested in a career in sociology? Before your first class starts at LASC, you can start preparing for your sociology career:
- Make an appointment with your LASC academic counselor to review LASC’s program, start to develop a Student Education Plan (SEP), and discuss your career goals. If getting a bachelor’s degree makes more sense for what you want to do, LASC’s associate degree for transfer makes it easy to get into a CSU. And, you will also save thousands of dollars going to LASC for your first couple of years compared to going to a CSU all four years!
- Still in high school? Look for opportunities to volunteer and make positive impacts on wide-ranging issues in your community. Talk with your high school counselor to see if there are opportunities to intern at local nonprofits, human resource departments within local businesses, and shadow someone for the day. Look for summer opportunities in your local community service organizations where you can learn more, and gain more experience in your future career.
- Once you’re at LASC, make sure to get involved with on-campus clubs and organizations, such as the Sociology Club, to become a student ambassador, or run for student body government. These create new relationships and show potential employers your commitment to building writing, communication, and leadership skills.
Program Learning Outcomes
After you successfully complete this program, you will be able to:
- Analyze social problems from major theoretical approaches in a historical and socio-cultural context.
- Identify a community-based approach to solving a social problem.
- Define the nature and scope of social work, including the nature of the relationship between social worker and client.